Photograph by Dennis West of Direct Photographics
Home All-Stars: Great Distances
January 1, 2006
In fact, Hartley adds, about 50 percent of the land between Wanaka and Queenstown is foreign-owned, though that phenomenon is largely due to Canadian singer Shania Twain and her husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, who bought a 24,700-hectare (61,000-acre) homestead. The purchase raised questions for New Zealanders, who increasingly want “to know what new owners of large swaths of often commercially productive, scenic or culturally valued land plan to do with it, and how that will affect historic public access ways,” says Hartley. Twain (by all accounts full of good intentions) said she intended to farm merino sheep, create a 12,000-hectare (29,640-acre) conservation estate, provide a public walking track and build two tramping huts.
Panama
With coasts on both the caribbean sea and the Pacific Ocean–and a world-famous
canal connecting them–Panama has recently burst onto the global real estate
scene. Prices in Panama have quadrupled in the last few years, according to some
estimates, aided by the endorsement by AARP magazine, which has labeled
Panama one of the best foreign retirement destinations in the Western
Hemisphere.
The capital, Panama City, is an energetic metropolis of
futuristic skyscrapers. “The capital is the banking center of a country that’s
friendly to foreign investors,” says Lincoln Garcia, who is developing PanCanal
View, two 36-story luxury residential towers near the new U.S. embassy building.
American buyers appreciate the tax incentives and the dollar-based economy, as
well as “low inflation, good infrastructure, cheap phone rates and good cell
phone service,” adds Garcia.
The city’s luxury life has clustered at its eastern edge, in Costa del Este and
in the downtown Punta Pacifica area, where 10 different residential condominium
developments are going up, says Frank Morrice Arias of Century 21 Semusa Realty.
“Foreigners look to the condos particularly for security and convenience,” he
says.
This home was originally built as a lighthouse station by the U.S. government at
Punta Mala on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula. Photography by Sam Taliaferro. (Click images to enlarge) ; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Those who prefer isolation (and who don’t mind possibly having to put in or upgrade roads and utilities) might follow Mick Jagger, Bruce Willis and Tommy Lee Jones into property ownership on Panama’s Azuero Peninsula. “There is tremendous potential in the area,” says Robert Cheesbrough, of Prestige World Properties, which is offering, in cooperation with Sandra Realty, 124 acres of pristine oceanfront for $1.852 million.
Most of Panama’s coastal development, including standout projects like Vistamar and Buenaventura, has occurred on the Pacific side, from Playa Coronado to just past Rio Hato. In the cool, coffee-growing highlands, the town of Boquete has mushroomed with new communities, including the gated upscale Valle Escondido.
Meanwhile, the Pearl Islands –only 15 minutes by air from Panama City, and the site of a recent Survivor series–are well positioned to take off. The island of Contadora has the airport, and on Isla del Rey, the largest, are several rivers. A European group recently purchased a 6,000-acre property for a high-end project. And all those gorgeous white-sand beaches make the thought of surviving there very attractive.
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